WASHINGTON: Millions of Americans are pushing ahead with holidays that include cross-country flights, busy tourist attractions and indoor dining, even as the surge in COVID-19 infections fuelled by the Omicron variant forces them to adapt some plans on the fly.
Debbie Rodriguez said she thought “long and hard” about cancelling this year’s family Christmas trip to New York City before opting last-minute on Thursday to travel from Houston.
“We just decided we’re not going to live in fear,” said Rodriguez, 48, as she waited for luggage at New York’s LaGuardia airport with her husband and two children.
Rodriguez said her fully vaccinated family had planned to see the Rockettes’ Christmas show before it was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, so they will instead check out landmarks including the Statue of Liberty and Central Park.
On Christmas Day, they will dine indoors at a restaurant in Harlem away from the crowds, then visit the Empire State Building, she said.
COVID-19 infections have surged in the United States in recent days due to Omicron, which was first detected in November and now accounts for approximately 73 per cent of cases across the country and as many as 90 per cent of cases in some areas, such as the eastern Atlantic states.
While Americans scramble for COVID-19 tests and weigh varying public health guidance about how to gather safely for a second Christmas marked by the pandemic, many showed they were willing to brave the latest surge in order to enjoy holiday traditions such as worshipping and eating out.
The Transportation Security Administration on Wednesday screened 2,081,297 passengers through the nation’s airports, an increase of 144,000 over the number of travellers it screened pre-pandemic on the same date in 2019.
In-person Christmas services will be held at all churches and parishes in the Archdiocese of New York, which includes more than 2.5 million Roman Catholics across 10 counties, communications director Joseph Zwilling said.
There will be no new restrictions in place because of Omicron, but Zwilling said the Archdiocese would continue to require mask-wearing and social distancing as it has since last year. “The existing measures have been working,” he said.
Two of Washington, DC’s Michelin-starred restaurants, Kinship and Metier, are fully reserved and have a waitlist for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, said chef and owner Eric Ziebold. To-go orders have increased for Christmas Eve, but it is too early to say the same for New Year’s, he said.
“Guests want to get through one holiday before they focus on the next, especially since new details about the Omicron variant are announced daily,” he said.
ALTERED PLANS
In the last seven days, the average number of new COVID-19 cases has risen 37 per cent to 165,000 per day, according to a Reuters tally. Deaths and hospitalisations, which can be lagging indicators, are relatively unchanged nationwide.
Cases have risen 96 per cent so far in December, while deaths are up 55 per cent and hospitalisations have increased 28 per cent.
Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Ohio all set one-day records for new cases this week, according to the Reuters tally.
US health officials have said people who are fully vaccinated should feel comfortable proceeding with holiday travel and family gatherings. They warned those who are unvaccinated are at higher risk of getting seriously ill or dying from the virus.
“We should all be concerned about Omicron, but not panicked,” President Joe Biden said in a Twitter post on Thursday, after outlining his latest steps to combat the virus earlier this week.
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